# Absolute Best Accent In Film **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolute-best-accent-in-film/628444 "2012-07-16T20:38:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolute-best-accent-in-film/628444/41 "2012-07-18T15:11:37Z")
Charlize Theron does a fairly good American accent 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolute-best-accent-in-film/628444/42 "2012-07-18T19:02:15Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Charlize Theron does a fairly good American accent 🙂 African-American, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolute-best-accent-in-film/628444/43 "2012-07-18T19:16:42Z")
I thought Robert Downey Jr. did a pretty good British accent in the “Sherlock Holmes” movies. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolute-best-accent-in-film/628444/44 "2012-07-18T20:14:14Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The fact that Jamie “Apollo” Bamber, from Battlestar Galactica, is British comes as a tremendous shock to anyone hearing him speak in his regular speaking voice for the first time. I have never heard of a reliable case of a person who could tell he wasn’t American from his lines on the show. Do deleted scenes count? The first inkling I had that he might not be American was when I was watching a deleted scene and he pronounced “fillet” as “FILL-it” instead of “fill-AY”. Yeah, I guess some Americans probably say “FILL-it”, but it raised my suspicion. Otherwise, though, I would have had absolutely no clue that he was not an American. I also agree with Simon Baker. I think he does (or did at one time) the “Stay tuned…” voiceovers in his natural voice. Without having heard that, I would have happily accepted him as having a natural American accent. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolute-best-accent-in-film/628444/45 "2012-07-18T23:03:03Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > So why do you suppose he did the world’s worst New England accent in THE CIDER HOUSE RULES? He did it in his normal Cockney accent, playing a lifelong state of Mainer. I had to turn it off. Because Michael Caine doesn’t give a shit sometimes. He’s the guy who said, in regard to starring in the crappy _Jaws: the Revenge_: “I have never seen it [the film], but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!” > [@Nava](#): > > But if I didn’t know better, watching him play that fortune soldier from León I would have been completely sure that his lastname is actually something as Old Castillian as Castille herself, and that he was born somewhere between Zamora and Burgos. I was scratching my head for awhile here… Viggo was in León: the Professional?.. oh… :smack: Jean Reno, on the other hand, is really named Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez. > [@Lamia](#): > > Thinking of people who were in _Velvet Goldmine_, Christian Bale’s American accent is good enough that I thought he was an American for years and was impressed by how well he did an English accent in _VG_! But I believe he grew up partially in the US, so he may have picked up an American accent pretty early on. I just learned, as in within the last year, that Christian Bale was English. No I didn’t think he’s American, but consider that he was born in Wales, and that apparently at his own behest he sang the song “Suo Gân” completely in Welsh in _Empire of the Sun_ while he was a preteen. I think my assumption can be excused a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolute-best-accent-in-film/628444/46 "2012-07-18T23:15:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Sam Neill (a native [New Zealander](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts2bzkE4RBY)) does an excellent American accent. I thought he was American. First time I heard him in New Zealand accent, I though he was faking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolute-best-accent-in-film/628444.md?page=2)